Opera Chic is not exactly the kind of person who wouldn't date someone just because, say, he doesn't like Don DeLillo -- nobody should be that strict, really (unless you take it personally because you are actually Don DeLillo). But Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections" is the kind of book that really split readers in two camps (for the record yes, Opera Chic did like it; and no, Franzen probably shouldn't have dissed Oprah the way he did back in '01 because he not only came across as douchy but he also badmouthed Oprah's audience, and that's a solid section of that dwindling minority -- American readers of actual books, whatever you might think of their taste, and that's a bit like making fun of pandas because of their weird dietary habits).
Oh, and Franzen once slammed Duncan Sheik -- that's a good thing, always.
Then Opera Chic, already excited by the not-really-a-short-story -but-an-excerpt-from-a-novel that just appeared in "The New Yorker", "Good Neighbors", was very pleased to read, in a few brief quotes that Franzen gave to the Milanese daily Corriere della Sera yesterday, that his new book, his first novel after The Corrections came out in 2001, will come out in the fall of 2010 in the US and right before Xmas 2010 in Italy, it will be called "Freedom", it won't be "The Corrections, Part 2" but readers will recognize his style, he had had the outline ready for a long time but he only began writing last November, after the Presidential election.
From what OC read in The New Yorker, it seems interesting. Maybe Oprah liked it too (in secret).
Photo of Corriere's story after the jump.
Franzen and DeLillo....oh yeah!!! Am reading White Noise right now...... O.C. you got some good taste!!!!
Posted by: Laurie | June 04, 2009 at 11:47 PM
Oh how I disagree on that Oprah part. I LOVE Jonathan Frenzen and extra loved him for dissing Oprah -- Oprah who even turned the literature into one of her "things, ya know". At some point the level of perversity skyrocketed and it was Oprah who "decided" a book was good or not. Jon rocks!
Posted by: val | June 05, 2009 at 08:52 PM
Oh Opera Chic - you're like the girlfriend we never had. Noone dishes like you do!
Bonney P
Home of the 2009 Summer Ring
Posted by: Bonney Pallasch | June 08, 2009 at 03:12 PM